On Friday, November 14, we hosted the Grand Finals of Google Code Jam. The event brought together the top 100 coder participants from around the world, who'd been taking their programming skills to the limit over the last few months, solving fiendish algorithmic puzzles and coming up with creative solutions to the tricky problems we posed.

When we announced Code Jam in June, we saw sign-ups from 22,867 students from 142 countries. After the online rounds, we hosted the top 500 coders at regional semifinals in 14 offices across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and last Friday we were pleased to welcome the top 100 finalists to our Mountain View campus for the final, highlighting the overwhelming involvement of students in making this contest so successful.

We're pleased to share the final results of this year's Code Jam: Tiancheng Lou, from Tsinghua University in Beijing, took home the $10,000 Grand Prize, Zeyuan Zhu, also from Tsignhua University in Beijing, won second place, Bruce Merry from the United Kingdom came in third, and cash prizes went to the other finalists.

Since launching, Google Earth has brought countless faraway places to life for millions of users, from the pyramids of Egypt to the ruins of Machu Picchu. Never before, however, have we been able to view and tour an ancient city in unbelievable detail. All that has changed with the recent launch of the Ancient Rome 3D Layer, a collaboration between Google, Past Perfect Productions, and the Rome Reborn Project that allows you to tour a collection of more than 6700 3D buildings created by students and scholars of history, archaeology and architecture. Read what the mayor of Rome said about the launch on the Official Google Blog.

To view the 3D layer in Google Earth, select the layer by clicking on “Ancient Rome 3D” which is located within the “Gallery”. Using the Google Earth controls, you can swoop down from the satellite view to explore the ancient city from street to street and column to column. It's the closest we'll get to StreetView imagery from 320 AD!

Check out our video tour:

For tech-minded educators out there, we've also launched our first curriculum contest geared around a new layer in Google Earth. At earth.google.com/romecontest, K-12 teachers in the US can submit lesson plans that incorporate the new Ancient Rome in 3D layer for the chance to win fame, glory, and an awesome prize package. We're accepting submissions in any format from every subject area--from math to art history to philosophy--the only limit is your imagination!

Today, we launched a new feature in Gmail that will make keeping in touch with your friends and family a lot easier: voice and video chat. Now, from your Gmail inbox, you can not only IM with your contacts, but also have face-to-face conversations. No matter how near or distant your family might be, chats within Gmail are always free. To get started, all you need to do is install a small plugin and have a webcam handy for video chatting.

In 2003, a group of Googlers decided to establish the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship to honor the work of their friend and colleague, Dr. Anita Borg, a computer scientist who dedicated her professional career to increasing the participation of women and other under-represented groups in the field of technology. In her memory, we're pleased to announce the 2009 Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship program in both the United States and Canada.

We're looking for women who will carry on the legacy of Dr. Borg, with strong academic backgrounds and demonstrated leadership qualities. A group of female undergraduate and graduate students will be chosen from the applicant pool, and scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of each candidate's academic background and demonstrated leadership. All US and Canadian scholarship recipients and finalists will be invited to visit the Googleplex in Mountain View, California next June for the Annual Google Scholars' Retreat. This special networking event includes workshops with a series of speakers, panelists, breakout sessions and social activities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You may know that earlier this year, Google launched the Google Online Marketing Challengeto encourage students around the world to get hands-on experience with AdWords and online marketing, with the chance to win a trip to Mountain View in the process. From Nigeria to Australia to Taiwan, 1600 student teams from 47 countries around the world took part in the first ever global online marketing competition. The standard of teams was very high and we're proud to announce our winners and finalists for 2008!

The College for Modern Business Studies (Hungary) - Péter Seres, Tamás Szabó, László Tóth and Anikó Vetési. Taught by Nebojsa Damjanovich.

Below is a guest blog entry by the Global Winners from the University of Western Australia who recently visited the Googleplex in Mountain View as part of their prize. For us at Google, it was immensely gratifying to meet these students and hear them speak of the enthusiasm and benefit they received from competing.

Remember - The Google Online Marketing Challenge is on again in 2009. To find out more visit the 2009 Challenge website at www.google.com/onlinechallenge.

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The Google Online Marketing Challenge has had a major impact on us as students by not only expanding our knowledge of online search advertising but also by increasing our career prospects. As student marketers it was great to actually get hands-on experience in using an online advertising platform. We got to work with real money and a real business client in a real world situation. The challenge was definitely a refreshing change from the usual theoretical university assessments we've been given in the past.

The challenge gave us the opportunity to put into practice some of the marketing theories we've been learning about in our Advertising and Promotion unit. In addition the resource guides provided by Google and the Adwords help center taught us how to easily and effectively advertise on Google's search and its content network. The knowledge and skills that we picked up will definitely help us in the future, especially at a time when more and more people are using the Internet.

And you don't even have to be studying marketing to benefit from taking this challenge. One day you may be starting your own business, and the skills you picked up through this challenge can be used to help promote your business on one of the world's largest online advertising networks. Also you could easily promote your charity, club or organization using the experience you gained from taking this challenge.

Besides the valuable experience we have all picked up, the challenge has helped increased our career prospects, especially with Google. One of our team members is actually in talks with Google for a job in London. Another one of our team members is currently in part-time employment with a Search Engine Marketing firm as a consequence of the challenge. Taking part in the challenge is definitely a great thing to add to your resume.

As global winners our prize was a trip to the Google headquarters in Mountain View. While we were there we received a tour of the Googleplex, found out what it was like to work there, met the Googlers who worked on the challenge and got plenty of Google's renowned free food and drinks! In addition we each received an awesome Macbook Pro. There are many cool prizes to win, so sign up for 2009 and who knows you and your team may be flying to the Google headquarters in 2009.

Before we sign off we would like to share a tip for everyone taking part in the 2009 challenge. It is highly recommended that you follow the guidelines, read it thoroughly and try to satisfy as much of the requirements as possible. The guides will help you structure your campaign correctly and give you a good understanding of what the judges expect from you. Apart from the resource guides, make sure to use the Adwords help center and other Adwords online resources. Just Google it!

It’s been a busy week at Google between Halloween last Friday (or Googleween as we like to call it) and the election on Tuesday. Halloween 2008 was celebrated in true Google style with lots of creative costumes and pumpkin carving. From current events to technology, Googlers costumes ranged from the simple to the elaborate. And of course our dogs got in on the fun too!

Our favorite student submitted costume comes from Ashley Tjader and Ashley Reid from theUniversity of South Carolina who dressed up as their favourite childhood lunch items.

Thanks, Ashley and Ashley, for sharing your Halloween fun with us!

The biggest news this week, of course, is the culmination of the 2008 US Presidential election. According to Rock the Vote, American youth turned out in record numbers to cast their votes. A whopping 55% of voters ages 18-29 voted in the 2008 election, up from 49% in 2004. No matter how you voted, we hope you were one of the 133 million people to get their voices heard during this historic election. To see how Google got involved and helped to get out the vote, visit our 2008 Election site or check out our blog post from just a few days ago. And congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama and Vice President Elect Joe Biden on their victory!

Last week marked the second birthday of Google Apps for Education, which we first announced in 2006 at EDUCAUSE -- an annual conference that focuses on an area we're very passionate about: technology in education. So we couldn't think of any better way to celebrate our 2 year and 2.5M user mark than by returning to Orlando, Florida for EDUCAUSE 2008. We even brought the bus to our event at Universal City Walk to mingle with some Marvel super heroes:

While in Florida, we got the chance to meet with many people from schools using Google Apps and hear more about their experience on campus. Obviously we really like to do this, as you might recall from our recent "App to School" bus tour, where we drove our eco-friendly bus to colleges across the country. Hearing directly from students, staff, and faculty about how they use products like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, and Google Talk opens our eyes to all the opportunities for innovation that are still ahead. Here's a snapshot of what we heard:

Sadly, the bus tour ends here, but stay tuned because you never know where and when it might show up! If you're interested in bringing Google Apps to your school to make it a more effective learning community, visit www.google.com/a/edu

Today, American students across the country will vote (or finish voting), and we want to make it easy for you to find as much information as you'd like concerning this historic 2008 election. Here are three steps for getting the full scoop:

2) VoteFind out where to vote on our U.S. Voter Info site (on your mobile phone, head to m.google.com/elections). We hope your boss has given you at least an hour off to vote, and if you're so inclined, bring a video camera with you to the polls to capture your voting experience on YouTube's Video Your Vote channel. We're using Google Maps to track these videos across the country -- and to see where polling problems might be occurring during the day. In addition, we're featuring all political videos on the homepage -- including videos made especially for Election Day by both the McCain and Obama campaigns.